rapturerebornmmorpgfandomcom-20200216-history
Tools
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- Player In-Game Tools --- --- --- --- --- * See also Fabrication (making objects within the game) * See also Player Created Assets * See also Player Creation Contests * See also Game Editing Tools * See also Drill and Wrench Game Objects/Things Used (in-game) for Player Actions) - They Should Give More Clues/Hints/Indicators. --- --- --- --- --- Tools (in-game Objects) : When you have a good Tool (Object, ie- a screwdriver ) in the game, it should work for its intended purpose, but efficiency/effectiveness might not always be evident (Player may not use it enough or have used a lesser one previously to realize a difference). It should be possible to have visual and auditory clues (including variations of animations showing how clumsy/imprecise the Tool is when used) to act as an indicator of not just its quality, but also of repair state (time to get it fixed). Flubbing an action should be made obvious (wrong Tool or not enough skill ...) Such cues would indicate something not being used for its proper usage, or that it is getting stressed/closer to breaking. A variety of 'Failure Animations' and 'Action Outcomes' is then logical. Sounds of strain on Tools/materials, that sickening snap of breaking metal, or a shriek of a jagged end of a broken Tool plunged into the users flesh ... There then would be activities to repair/tune-up the Player's Tools (can have some NPC do it), even routinely, which would be preparation for Adventures. A useful game mechanism is to have NPC Team lackeys to do this for you, including them asking for resources to get it done, and for the priorities for which things to do it for (a bit more detail of limited resource management). You can also just 'wing-it', and hope that your Tools don't fall apart in your hands (the same goes for Weapons, BTW.) Tools to fix Tools ... --- --- --- Idea from Thingees Tacked up on walls in many Places (SitS, Ryans WTF wall, etc...): Players would have their own 'bulletin board' (interface where they could tack up things of interest or to be 'remembered for later', etc... Including Maps, Photographs they (the Player) took, Memos, Mail letters, Notices they received, Pamphlets, Task-Lists, etc... Probably(preferably) it would be sufficiently low impact (processing/graphics) for it to work well in the tablet/smartphone interfaces. Player would have these 'bulletin boards' for various different contexts (like on the players fabrication workbench, official paperwork in a work-desk, business desk ledgers, adventuring bulletin board, (NPC) Team board/schedule -- to separate various different interests/functions (instead of one humongus bothersome-to-use menu). (Example - the way the different interfaces in the BS2 MP Player Apartment are separate). --- --- --- Pay Phones : (Player Interface) ''' Operator, Security, Medical (Look and See whats on the payphones in the game ...) ??? a 7 digit number ??? (things like that are usually short sequences like 0 or 911 for ease of entering them in an emergency or to be easily remembered. All privately funded services ?? .. Possibly in Rapture...). With coin-slots for lower denomination coins (We never saw) -- BTW, a dime can be fired thru someones head just as easily as any bullet ... Copper pennies can be made into real fine arrow heads... (( '' Heh, Too Many Violent Video games for me ... you think ??? '' )) Circa 1946 what did it cost ??? ( I remember my grandfather telling about prices of things (circa the 20s probably) - " You could get a can of Campbell's Soup for 'a nickel !!' And it was a BIG can !!" ) Anyway... Payphones cost a nickel or a dime back then (often as cheap as a quarter still even today) -- you should know that you could get a cup of coffee for 5/10 cents at that time, so that gives you a idea of the relative value/cost of a phone call ( ?? a Buck today, or Coffee for $4 at StarPozers/StarBarfs ?). Add Pix here May be very interesting to see who/whats on the other side of the Pay Phones you will find in various places in the MMORPG wild Rapture world. Many phones are still functioning (that equipment was really well made there). Be aware, though, that whomever 'picks up' may realize someone other than who they expect is AT that phone and now knows where YOU are (Caller ID features were a big thing in Rapture's competitive consumer tech scene). Organized Factions would employ phones as a very useful resource/Tool and try to keep them operating. One faction at Hephaestus had last orders from Ryan to keep Rapture alive and so maintain communications with diverse sections of the city to keep the power flowing and access for the Big Daddies who continue to do repairs. In New Rapture the reestablished phone system reflects conveniences that once worked in old Rapture : Phones offer various useful Menu-ing systems for New Rapture's citizens. The Player interface would be easily applicable for Tablets/Smartphones - used for the various mundane activities, while the player is 'off-line' from the full 3D PC Interface. * Call in to order those structural bracings you need to prop up that sagging section of your new 'Team' Base. * File a Notice Of Intent to take the mission to explore/survey that section beyond City Limits posted on the City Projects Board. * Send in your Vote on the current City Projects Issue to extend repairs of the AE Line towards some section of Rapture. * Etc ... --- --- --- '''Typewriter - Object - Tool : Seen on desks in many places in Rapture (I've brained a few Splicers throwing them). NPC/Player (in-game) Tool for various Research, and some businesses operations(newspapers). The New Rapture City Council wants more of these for its Official functions (paperwork is reasserting itself - in triplicate). Modify (kludge) with some effort into a Teleprinter (easier to do on a Selectric, but possible if you don't have enough solenoids). Idea for an entrepreneur ^^^ -- rediscovering how to manufacture Carbon-Copy paper ... --- --- --- Players Bulletin Board : A mechanism much like SitS Meltzer's extended wall and various other office objects, or Ryan's WYK wall. Would be used to organize a Player's game in a little more interesting way than the usual MMORPG Quest/Mission List. This one would not be STATIC like those others, but allow the Player to place their momentoes and mnemonic markers spatially as desired and to whatever extent they want. Maps and diagrams, memos and pictures, little flags and red strings linking objects, all that good stuff. --- --- --- The Hotplate - (Very Simple Electric Stove) : * Basic apartment (residence) item --- well known for starting fires. * Useful on-site tool for coffee, food, heating various work chemicals, etc... * Larger 'porta stove' units with larger capacity for 'camps' * Folding tables - convenient especially for temporary situations (hmm, folding table is a 'machine') * In a pinch can be used to thaw frozen machinery. * Red glowing (visual) element effect when its 'on'. Will likely burn you if you try to grab it in that state. * Place items ontop to impart 'heat' state change to those objects (another Game Mechanic to add) * Fortunately most ovens/stoves in Rapture had been electric, so there are LOTS of the heating elements available so that most folk can afford one easily. --- --- --- Radio Handsets/Base Units : * Requires operator for the base unit (will forward to other communications when needed) Ex- players project worksite may use radios for the interim they don't have the phone lines working. * Handset to handset (handset frequency range usually limited) Walkie-Talkies... * Base unit have wider frequency range, more distance capability * Utility value of Radio is high - purchased at premium cost (and expensive to repair) * Radio frequencies - some City reserved frequencies for emergency/security/maintenance dispatch (players can listen in to transmissions if their radios can tune) * Handset Batteries (the old problem - limited charge time - keeping them charged - portable generators) * City Central Communications/Dispatch ** Coordinates emergency services (constable/fire/maintenance) ** Maintenance orders issued by radio/phone --- --- --- Cash Registers (and CASH Transfer Issues) : * Print out daily totals/receipts your NPC shop watcher can mail you (simplifying shop operation for player) * For businesses that Buy as well as Sell, sufficient funds must be available (NPC may have to go to the 'safe' if its a large transaction.) * Writing checks ??? not sure people will trust checking accounts... (which means piles of CASH in large transactions) Really dont want any complicated Banking system for this game. Bank could possibly handle 'wiring amounts between simple accounts' with proper authorization and the usual 'Trade Window' mechanism to prevent player scams) * With 'light fingered' PneumoMen, people might generally be smart enough to not send CASH thru the Pneumo. * Additional Cash Register styles can be generated via Player Created Content... (oh and they are usually bolted down in RL) * Receipts for Buyers provided (So your 'Team' NPCs have 'paper trail' for that equipment they were supposed to buy) * Bookkeeping for Players should be minimal and largely automatic. --- --- --- Bathtubs - Valuable Commodity in Chaos Era Rapture : - Source of food - green goo (algae) cultivated in it (don't really want to mention what is used for 'fertilizer'...). - Place to keep your pet Sea Slug which is large enuf and largely unbreakable (licking them to get ADAM -- well if people do it to toads...). - We see them in places where people were bootlegging ADAM products (if not the ADAM then maybe a way to generate raw EVE??) - Safer place to sleep (hard for rats to climb in to chew on you). - Probably plenty of them around and they aren't too easy to destroy (so many survived) - Lesson from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" - always take your gun with you when you use a bathtub. --- --- --- ' Handy Dandy Radio :' Ordinary Household Reception Unit - entertainment and information advisories Two-Way Communication units The Radio Transmission System (and TV also) inside Rapture was not the same as up here on the Surface in those days. Radio waves travel poorly through water and not well through thick concrete. So to get coverage for proper reception transissions were sent thru wires either directly to fixed receivers (like TV sets and Radios) or to local repeaters for 2-way portable units (walkie talkies). Wires went all over in Rapture, and the RF signals could use most any of them (I recall remote broadcasts were sent thru conventional Telephone lines way back - some for special coverage from unusual sights like A-Bomb tests in Nevada). This also means that local Radio reception may be poor-to-none depending on the state of those wires. One more thing for the Players to be Tasked with fixing. Will be able to watch "Cecil the Seasick Sea Slug" once again !!! --- --- --- Auto-Diary of Events (A Nifty OUT-GAME Player Tool) : Information tracking - Players Forget - Players need reminding - Players HAVE REAL LIVES AND MIGHT NOT GET TO PLAY REGULARLY. SO something to keep info for (hopefully) instant access and retrieval for all the many game details. Basic descriptions auto-entered with Player able to add comments (later) * Reference links (hypertext) to minimize bulk. * Media tags/markers insertable (so its not only text) * Pictures (view captures, etc..) * Maps with flags marking progress * Tag entries for people/Players/objects you meet to build up a bio database * Quest references (You will probably remember your expedition - when you slipped in the Splicer dung and broke you leg but not the name of the Player you met who helped you -- when all this happened a month ago in real time....) Some people don't want/need this feature - So Have it vary in data collected/disablable. Extended data gathering features could be included, to allow recording bugs when they are found and recreatible (useful to the developers also -- many existing games have Shit-Poor™ tools of this kind, and only makes attempts to fix them that much more difficult -- likewise Player Creators will use to assist their debugging activities). A means of referencing the Auto Diary Information with Searches and other standard 'easy-use' features. --- --- --- Interface Mechanism for Manipulating Objects : I've been playing around with using Telekinesis in hard-mode BS1/BS2 to maniputate objects (piling up bodies/lockboxes I'm too full to take stuff from, making 'mines' from the explody objects(trap rivet trigger), clearing empty lockboxes/corpse so I wont have to check them again, holding up object to sweep and spring wire traps, etc...). A little tedious but still workable (if you have time to do them - not usually in battle situation). Effectively you could do similar without Telekinesis. Keep the 'activation' key press, but you still have to correctly select the targeted object first (a problem noticed when loot is next to vending machines). Finer controls - MMORPG machine use 'buttons'/controls that might require zoom when more than one In-Game control object is next to another (otherwise huge caricatures). Ability to Pick up stuff and hold object without holding down a button, and then still to do stuff with the unencumbered hand (somethings will also require using both hands). Change to object orientation while being held (no control pressed for 'hold') to facilitate placement and stacking - possibly precision 2 axis control by mouse working a popup rotation trackball control (click and drag). Any tediousness must be rewarded (and minimized as much as possible). A Fabrication 'Workbench' may be a more 2D view/manipulation (a bit more complex than a 'Minecraft' workbench - Drag-n-drop is still a better interface when applicable). Tool manipulations - sticking crowbar into that door to pry it open.. (or wedging it ino a door to prevent that horde of Splicers to open it and make you into Chutney). Tools should have multiple 'use' select applicable to object in activation range (ie - locked/jammed door in range of crowbar lists that as an option ) The 'Rigging' ('ad hoc' assembling) of machine components to get something done (ie- force a door, repair a life-support system, pump out a flooded room, etc..) will rely on the ease of this interface type to place the components. --- --- --- Magnesium Flares (I Recall They Even Work Underwater) : Playing around with the Rocket Spears, they would have made a good light enhancement in dark places (if they didnt explode) with a searing bright light that would be perfect to expose the legion of Splicers stalking you. The MMORPG with its more varied lighting situations (including the always fun 'complete darkness' where things have a chance to jump out at you suddenly), a variety of different lighting apparatus will be useable. With a more advanced game engine, a larger variety of lighting effects including beam of light shining thru mist, etc.. can add alot of atmosphere to the game (want to retain that creepy feel you got the first time you were there and didn't know where every object and Splicer was going to be). --- --- --- --- --- . .